If this website has been useful to you, please consider
making a Donation.

Your support will help keep this website free for everyone, and will allow us to do
more research. Thank you for your support!

Civil War Soldiers - Upton

Upton, Emory, brigadier-general, U.S.
Army, was born at Batavia, N. Y., Aug. 27, 1839. After a few months at
Oberlin college, Ohio, he was appointed to the U. S. military academy
in 1856 and was graduated in 1861. Entering the war as a lieutenant of
artillery, he was wounded at the first battle of Bull Run; served
through the Peninsular campaign; won praise from Gens. Franklin and
Slocum, and had command of an artillery brigade at South mountain and
Antietam. He was appointed colonel of the 121st N. Y. infantry in
Oct., 1862, was engaged at Fredericksburg and Salem heights, and led a
brigade at Gettysburg and Rappahannock Station, receiving a brevet for
the latter. He took part in the Wilderness campaign, was wounded at
Spottsylvania while heading an attack, and was made brigadier-general
of volunteers May 12, 1864. He had a share in the defense of
Washington, and in Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah valley he was
again wounded at the Opequan while commanding a division. Upon
recovering he was assigned to the 4th cavalry division and was engaged
in the expedition which resulted in the taking of Selma, Columbus and
other places in Alabama and Georgia. At the end of the war he had
received all the brevets from major to major-general in the regular
army, but he held merely a captain's commission. After this he had
commands in Tennessee and Colorado; was mustered out of the volunteer
service April 30, 1866, and was made lieutenant-colonel of the 26th
infantry three months later. He now had time to complete his "System
of Infantry Tactics," which was published and adopted in 1867. In
1870-75 he was commandant of cadets at West Point, and in 1875-77 went
on a tour of inspection abroad, the outcome of which was his "Armies
of Asia and Europe" (1878). In 1877 he was assigned to the artillery
school of practice at Fortress Monroe, and in 1880 became colonel of
the 4th artillery and was stationed at the Presidio, San Francisco,
Cal., until his death. He died by his own hand on March 14, 1881,
while suffering derangement from chronic catarrh.

Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908